You Are Mine (To Keep Warm)
by starfish.dancer
Summary: Written for Ward Simmons Summer 2016, Session #3 Prompt #2: Favourite Things. Ward thoughts on the runaway bride he brought on his road trip vacation. Set in the Take Me Anywhere universe.


You Are Mine (To Keep Warm)

She's been in his life for less than three weeks, but he already knows he doesn't want to go back to a life without Jemma. Ever since she nearly fell straight into his arms – quite literally – then turned those soft eyes on him, he's wanted his hands on her. And when she smiled that slow sunshine smile? He's got a reputation for having ice where his heart should be (something Garrett praised but Coulson seems alarmed about) but in the face of that smile? He's sure anyone would have melted.

It's crazy how much he wants to keep her. They've only just met, and it happened during the exact minutes she was supposed to be pledging forever to another man. But he does want to keep her. Nineteen days together, a good portion of those spent in the close quarters of his truck's cab, and he isn't the slightest bit tired of her company but instead is hungry for more. He once had to do a two-day stakeout with Daisy and wanted to shoot her before the first eight hours were out. He's been a lone wolf as an agent and in his personal life both, a string of one man missions and one night stands, but it's different with Jemma.

It's hard to put words to the reason, when it just feels like she's the puzzle piece he didn't even know he was missing until he found it. She's adorable and charming, fascinated with everything and everyone she meets. She insists on taking photos at every monument or of interesting plants, and her enthusiasm is both endearing and catching. She's content to sit in quiet as much as she is to sing along to the radio as he takes them down long stretches of road. She insists on taking turns paying for gas and hotels, even though he would have paid on his own, and every time she slips into the station she comes out with a snack she thinks he'll like.

She's also, quite possibly, the sweetest person he's ever met. She makes coffee in their hotel rooms if she wakes up before him, even though she doesn't drink it. She makes a point of staying awake with him whenever he is driving, even when it gets late, because she thinks it is only fair. She sensed before he did that he might want a little space and spent days every now and again wandering on her own, then is excited to hear about what he did without her, even if it was just reading for most of the day in the coffee shop. She always orders dessert to share at dinner.

And the sex? The sex is incredible. He's had a lot of good sex, great sex even. It doesn't hold a candle to sex with Jemma. Part of it is their physical chemistry, palpable from the moment they met, when he watched her lips curve into that smile and wanted to pull her against him and taste them. Part of it is that she knows what she likes and isn't afraid to ask for it, and that her playfulness and curiosity extends to the bedroom. Plus, he just likes the way she feels underneath him, or even just pressed against his side like she is now.

He'd pulled them up next to a small, out of the way lake off a country road, one he knows doesn't see a lot of traffic this time of year. The weather is just starting to turn cold, a bit of a bit in the air at night. It's not too far a drive from the childhood home his family has since moved on from, and he spent a lot of time out here once he had his driver's license and could take a car to get away from the family. Every once and while he'd run into the farmer that owned the land or some local kids out to make use of the rope swing to play in the water, but it's gone too cold for swimming and his old haunt is just his again. He's never shared this spot with anyone, but he didn't hesitate to bring Jemma here.

He'll admit he was a bit nervous to ask if she'd consider camping out here, the bike parked beside the truck so he could put an air mattress in the bed to sleep under the stars. But instead of complaints or fake acceptance, her whole face had lit up like the constellations she'd pointed out. He could hardly look at the sky when she was the one who looked so beautiful, curled under his arm under the sleeping bag unzipped to cover them both, the too-long sleeves of his favourite sweatshirt, the one he'd pulled off and then over her head with a gruff insistence she keep warm, tucked over her hands.

She shifts a bit in her sleep, and he pulls her closer to snuggle against him more tightly. She's the most gorgeous thing he's ever seen, whether under the light of last night's stars or in the soft pinks of the rising sun. He bends slightly to kiss her hair, watches her nose wrinkle in her sleep as she nuzzles closer and lets the sound of the waves lapping against the shore and her peaceful breathing lull him back to sleep.

He's had her for nineteen days. He's got another ten to convince her to let him have her for a lifetime.


End file.
